Coast Z Coast with John & Lynn: Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Tuesday, October 18

Today we went to Palo Duro Canyon State Park near Amarillo, Texas. Before we left on our trip two different people told us to be sure to see this park so we added it to our itinerary. One of the interesting things about this park is that as you approach the area you are driving along on a flat Texas road looking at the flat Texas terrain

when all of a sudden the land drops off into this beautiful canyon and you’re thinking ‘where did that come from?’

Palo Duro Canyon has a lot of history for Texans and each summer they produce a Musical Drama called Texas. This program is performed in an outdoor amphitheater with the canyon as a backdrop. We would love to have seen it but it only runs through August. The Palo Duro Canyon area was home to several Native American tribes until the Red River Wars of 1874 in which Col Mackenzie and the 4^th Calvary drove them out and onto the reservation in the Oklahoma Territory. This is the story told in the production.

amphitheatre

Palo Duro is called the Grand Canyon of Texas and is the second largest canyon in the United States. The canyon is 120 miles long and 800 feet deep. The geological evidence of the different periods of evolution could be seen in the many layers and colors of the mountains as we drove down into the canyon.

We checked out the camping areas and really liked them however we were thankful that we were not camping last night with the temperatures in the low 30’s.

Most of the campsites we've seen have these shelters over the table area because of the extreme sun ~ guess in our area we could use protection from the rain. In the futrue we'll have to get warmer gear because these places look like fun places to camp and really experience the park (on second thought ~ maybe not).

Today the sun was shining brightly and it felt warmer but the thermometer never got over 60. One of the workers in the cabin area asked if we wanted to take a look. These stone cabins were similar inside to the wooden ones we have seen in other parks but the stone looked really cool against the red hills.

stone cabin

We had a picnic lunch and then hit the trail.

We hiked the two mile Sunflower trail but didn’t want to loop back over the area we had already come on, so we explored a little on our own and after a couple of hours we ended up back at the trailhead. It was fun to climb up on the lower cliffs and be able to see across the canyon. We didn’t want the hike to end because we were feeling a little nostalgic with this being the last park visit on our trip. What a great way to end this part of our journey.

someone getting ready for Halloween on the trail

looking across the canyon

Tomorrow we are heading to Oklahoma and will be staying with John’s cousins for a few days. They are a wild and crazy group also so one only knows what we’ll be up to there.

As we were leaving Palo Duro, we actually saw some

Texas Longhorns ~ in the park. Nami was correct ~

we were told earlier at the visitor center that there really

are no longhorns left in west Texas but the state maintains

a herd just to keep some around. The herd grew quite

large so it was separated and sent to several of the state parks

throughout Texas. This guy looks a little larger than

the one we saw in New Mexico.

After leaving the park we traveled west to the town of Adrian and the Midway Café along old Route 66. The café marks the half way point on old Route 66 between LA and Chicago.

Unfortunately when we arrived they were closing for the day and we weren't able to get a piece of their famous 'ugly crust pie.'

a step back in time

We continued to cruise along the section between Adrian and Amarillo. One of the highlights was the Cadillac Ranch where ten old caddies are buried nose down into the ground with their tail fins visible ~ a real sight to see.